1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to bags for carrying golf clubs and more particularly to an improved throat structure for facilitating placement and removal of the golf clubs in the bag and providing improved golf club group segregation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Golf clubs have been stored, carried, and otherwise transported in especially designed golf bags for many years. Most golf bags are in the form of a tubular fabric container generally of cylindrical configuration having a closed bottom and an open top, or throat, through which the golf clubs are inserted into and removed from the bag. When golf clubs are in such bags, the grips of the clubs are in resting engagement with the closed bottom of the bag, and the heads of the clubs extend more or less axially from the open throat of the bag. By positioning the golf clubs in the bag in this manner, the clubs can be identified for club selection purposes by a golfer in that the configurations of the heads vary in accordance with the intended usage and are for the most part generally provided with suitable identifying indicia.
Although the number of golf clubs carried in golf bags will vary, the rules of golf dictate that the maximum number of clubs carried while playing will be fourteen. From this, it will be appreciated that even though the clubs vary in configuration and are provided with identifying indicia, selecting a desired club from the relatively large number of clubs can be distracting and sometimes frustrating. And, after the desired club has ben identified, removal of the club is not always easy in that the clubs can, and often do, become entangled in the bag.
For the above reasons, most golf bags are provided with throat structures which separate the clubs into segregated groupings which are, of course, determined by individual preference. For example, the woods are usually segregated by the throat structure of the golf bag into one group, the low number, or long and middle distance irons into another group, and the higher number, or short distance irons, and the putter into a third group.
The open top, or throat structure of most prior art golf bags are usually in the form of a substantially circular ring-shaped body having a spaced pair of linear dividers placed therein so that the dividers form equal chords within the circular ring-shaped body. The dividers are usually tubular structures formed by folding a relatively heavy gage, usually synthetic, leather-like material, and stitching the aligned longitudinal edges together. Such dividers are normally mounted in the ring-shaped body by an elongated strap which is threadingly passed through the tubular dividers and through suitable openings in the body with a buckle being used to secure the strap, and thus the dividers in place.
In throat structures which are divided as described above into three approximately equally sized open areas, most golfers place their woods, usually three, in one area, their putter and three or so short distance irons in another area, with the central area being used for containment of the middle and long distance irons. While these three open areas are a considerable improvement over a non-divided throat structure with regard to segregation and ease of club removal, the club entanglement problem is still quite bad particularly with regard to the central opening which can contain as many as seven or eight clubs if the golfer divides the clubs in the usual manner as described above.
In some golf bags, a third divider is sometimes employed to further provide the throat structure with an additional number of club separating open areas. The third divider is formed in the same manner as described above and is mounted below the other two dividers and lies on a diameter of the ring-shaped body and is transverse with respect to the other two dividers. Therefore, the third divider will provide six separate openings through the ring-shaped body. This type of throat structure is limited for use in relatively large diameter golf bags in that if used in relatively smaller diameter bags, the open area of each of the six openings would be too small and would therefore hamper facile insertion and removal of the golf clubs.
In view of the above, it will be seen that in most instances, the three open golf club segregation areas in many of the prior art golf bags is not enough for ideal golf club group segregation purposes, and the six open areas provided in other prior art structures is too many.
In yet another prior art golf bag, the throat structure is divided into four open club segregation areas which is believed to be a proper number for ideal club group segregation purposes. This four open club segregation area throat structure is formed by employing the two linear dividers in the ring-shaped body, in the same manner as the first hereinbefore described throat structure, and interconnecting the dividers with a cross rib at the centers thereof. This divides the central opening into two equal halfs.
In all prior art golf bags known to me, another shortcoming exists, and for clarity of the description of this shortcoming the first hereinbefore described prior art golf bag throat structure will be employed in the description.
As is well known, when a golf bag is carried it will normally be disposed at an angle relative to the ground with the throat structure of the bag lying in a more or less upwardly facing angular attitude. Therefore, the open golf club group segregation areas provided in the golf bag throat structures may be defined as including an upper opening, an intermediate opening, and a lower opening. The lower portions of the upper and intermediate openings are defined by the linear dividers and when a golf bag is being carried, those linear dividers ideally lie in a horizontal attitude, with the shafts of the golf clubs resting thereon. However, it is virtually impossible to keep those dividers in the desired horizontal attitude and the result is that the golf clubs will tend to collect in one corner or the other of their respective segregated opening. This will not happen in the lower compartment in that the bottom portion thereof is defined by an arcuate part of the ring-shaped body. When the golf clubs gather in the corners as described above, the golf clubs in the upper and intermediate openings will gather in adjacent corners of their respective openings. This causes shifting and uneven weight distribution in the golf bag which makes it more difficult to carry the bag. However, a more troublesome problem results from the heads of the golf clubs becoming entangled, making individual club identification and extraction more difficult.
Another problem with the above described prior art golf bag throat structures is that of the golf clubs hanging-up, or catching in the throat structures as the clubs are being extracted from the golf bag. The grips provided on golf clubs are, by necessity, of larger diameter than the shafts of the clubs. Therefore, the grips present an annular lip which faces upwardly toward the throat structure when the golf clubs are in the golf bag. Also, the golf club grips are tapered so that they gradually increase in diameter from the lips to the terminal ends thereof. A large part of the catching problem occurs at the corners of the open club segregation areas defined by the throat structures. In other words, at the intersections of the ends of the dividers and the ring-shaped body, and at the intersections of the dividers themselves in throat structures which are divided into more than the three open golf club segregation areas. The lip of the golf club grips often catch in these corners and sometimes the clubs become wedged therein due to the tapered configuration of the grips.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved golf bag throat structure which overcomes some of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.